By Seth A. McConnell

Seth A. McConnell/Journal staff Belinda Wickham and her daughter Samantha, 11, rest in front of a pew after having a religious experience during a healing prayer service with Fr. Richard McAlear Saturday night at Blessed Sacrament Church.

For not being a religious person, I’ve always had a fascination with religion and the ceremonies affiliated with different sects and beliefs. Saturday night I shot a healing ceremony (I’m not sure if that is the best name for it…) at Blessed Sacrament Church. I had no idea what I was getting myself into and we had a discussion in the office as to what was going to happen because it sounded more like a Pentecostal ceremony than one that you would find in a Catholic church. This being confirmed by a Catholic friend.
The ceremony itself was different. Fr. McAlear would talk with those wishing to be healed, he would mark the sign of the cross on their forehead with holy water, say a prayer as he stared into their eyes and then… people started falling over backwards weeping. I had never seen anything like it. It’s not my place to say it was strange but it was definitely different and an experience unto itself.
Fr. McAlear pulled me into the ceremony, picking me out because of my barking cough from an illness weeks prior. He wiped the water on my forehead, stared into my eyes and talked with me for a minute, before blessing me and sending me on my way. Unlike a lot of people I didn’t fall over weeping but I did feel a little better… for like 15 minutes before I started coughing worse than before. I wasn’t expecting miracles and for everything to just vanish in an instance but everything is worth a shot, right? A week later I’m feeling a lot better after multiple trips to the doctor and a morning in the ER… I’m not sure the miracle of modern medicine was what they had in mind but to each their own, right?
It was an experience to say the least and one that I’m glad I could be apart of. I only wish I would have been healthy because there were a lot more photos to make.

-S

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